Purse State Park Microfossils.

[Tidgy's Dad]

8 hours ago, Anomotodon said:

Striatolamia intermediate tooth is an interesting option.

For the tooth in question, I would guess a lower posterior from a different odontaspidid, perhaps a species of Carcharias or Sylvestrilamia. Systematics of Paleogene sand tigers is a mess and I haven't really kept up with the literature, so Odontaspididae indet. would probably be most accurate.

 

Very interesting.

Thank you again.

[Tidgy's Dad]

2 hours ago, old bones said:

This site of Marcos Sr. and sons may be of help. 

http://phatfossils.com/Aquia Formation Paleocene of Maryland and Virginia.php

Thanks for that!

I saw this a while back and then couldn't find it again.

Very useful

Edited April 29 by Tidgy's Dad

[Tidgy's Dad]

10 hours ago, Elmo said:

Here’s a lovely little fish tooth named Lucy.

Wow!

Lucy is very tiny.

I couldn't even see it for a while!

[Tidgy's Dad]

There are also a lot of ray teeth in this Aquiq Formation micromatrix.

Myliobatids, eagle rays seem very common, particularly "Myliobatis" dixoni.

Ahem, I must confess that until this week, I thought the ridged bit was the crown with cusps, the biting surface.

Now I know it's the root!

[Elmo]

4 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

There are also a lot of ray teeth in this Aquiq Formation micromatrix.

Myliobatids, eagle rays seem very common, particularly "Myliobatis" dixoni.

Ahem, I must confess that until this week, I thought the ridged bit was the crown with cusps, the biting surface.

Now I know it's the root!

Beautiful! Ray plates are my favorites! When out hunting I’ve always found 10 ray plates for every sharks tooth. It made me think that it was just the more plentiful animal in the waters at the time. When I started sorting through the micro world I found that shark teeth, ray plates, raja teeth, and the little round fish teeth were pretty evenly found. It made me wonder why there was such a difference in quantity based off of size. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s because when most people go out to collect it’ll be just a one and done deal and they are looking out for pointy sharks teeth and totally overlooking all the other beautiful fossils that are there. 

[bthemoose]

10 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

So the striations on Striatolamia  wear off fairly easily?

The striations can definitely be absent or very faint on teeth that have been tumbling for longer in the river. Of course, some teeth never had striations and may be something else. And while striations are an indicator for Striatolamia striata, they’re not the only teeth that have them—Brachycarcharias lerichei for example can also be striated.

 

Here’s a striated Brachycarcharias tooth I found as an example (the 1x image in the upper left is the actual size of the tooth if this image is printed at 2x2 inches):

 

[bthemoose]

 

Edited April 29 by bthemoose
Looks like I posted this twice accidentally

[Tidgy's Dad]

Little ray and skate teeth can also be found.

This one is from the stingray Hypolophodon sylvestris, I think.

 

[Darktooth]

@Tidgy's Dad Wow! 6 lbs of micro matrix should keep you busy for awhile Adam!

very generous @Elmo!

[Elmo]

20 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Little ray and skate teeth can also be found.

This one is from the stingray Hypolophodon sylvestris, I think.

 

I know this thread is for the fossils, but I can’t resist sharing this little guy. I’m guessing a little crab lost this claw, but for all I know it could be from a shrimp. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

5 hours ago, Darktooth said:

@Tidgy's Dad Wow! 6 lbs of micro matrix should keep you busy for awhile Adam!

very generous @Elmo!

Indeed, I've been going through a little most days for months and months and am about two-thirds of the way through.

Keeps me off the streets.

2 hours ago, Elmo said:

I know this thread is for the fossils, but I can’t resist sharing this little guy. I’m guessing a little crab lost this claw, but for all I know it could be from a shrimp. 

 

Poor little beastie.

I've been finding a lot of little non-fossil mussels.

Edited May 1 by Tidgy's Dad

[Al Dente]

8 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

I've been finding a lot of little non-fossil mussels.

Looks similar to the invasive Zebra Mussel.

[Tidgy's Dad]

16 hours ago, Al Dente said:

Looks similar to the invasive Zebra Mussel.

Quite pretty, but if they are an invasive species then I am glad to have some of them removed from the area!

 

These beautiful round teeth are also very common.

Paralbula marylandica seems to fit. 2 to 3 mm in diameter.

[Tidgy's Dad]

Bit of bone?

[Tidgy's Dad]

These Paralbula are very beautiful.

[Denis Arcand]

1 hour ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

These Paralbula are very beautiful.

 

 

Yes, they are indeed.

 

Edited May 4 by Denis Arcand

[Tidgy's Dad]

22 hours ago, Denis Arcand said:

 

 

Yes, they are indeed.

So here's another one:

 

[Elmo]

Works been crazy so I’ll make up for it with 2 finds today. 
First is a little vertebrae that I found today, I won’t be putting it in the ultrasonic for cleaning. Second is what I think is a fish tooth? 

[bthemoose]

Definitely a fish tooth. Looks like the enamel has worn away on this one but as you search through more micro matrix, you'll probably find some that still have their enamel as well. This may be what @MarcoSr has identified as Scomberomorus sp. on his website.

 

The vert looks like it's from a bony fish as well.

Edited May 6 by bthemoose

[MarcoSr]

14 hours ago, Elmo said:

Works been crazy so I’ll make up for it with 2 finds today. 
First is a little vertebrae that I found today, I won’t be putting it in the ultrasonic for cleaning. Second is what I think is a fish tooth? 

 

When I was ultrasonic cleaning hundreds of bony fish, shark and ray vertebrae at a time (one trip's worth of Eocene vertebrae) in a single cleaner, about 10% would get damaged.  Cleaning a large number of the vertebrae together at one time in a single ultrasonic cleaner versus one or two vertebrae helped keep the damage down.  The bony fish vertebrae looked fragile, and I expected some of them to get damaged.  I was finding thousands of them, so I was OK with loosing some to get them clean of dirt and clay.  However, what was surprising, some large solid looking shark and ray vertebrae broke in half or in more pieces.  I wasn't finding as many of them, so I stopped ultrasonic cleaning the shark and ray vertebrae.  Fish vertebrae did not preserve well/survive well in the Aquia Formation.

 

I agree with @bthemoose that the one specimen is a bony fish, Scomberomorus sp., tooth missing the enamel and the other is a bony fish vertebra.  The Scomberomorus sp. teeth are fairly common in the Aquia Formation, but because of their small size, you really need to search matrix to find them.

 

Marco Sr.

[Elmo]

19 hours ago, bthemoose said:

Definitely a fish tooth. Looks like the enamel has worn away on this one but as you search through more micro matrix, you'll probably find some that still have their enamel as well. This may be what @MarcoSr has identified as Scomberomorus sp. on his website.

 

The vert looks like it's from a bony fish as well.

I’ve found a fair number of these teeth and none of them seem to keep the enamel. Most of the stuff from Purse is pretty worn. I’m happy for being able to find them even if they aren’t in perfect condition. 

[Elmo]

9 hours ago, MarcoSr said:

 

When I was ultrasonic cleaning hundreds of bony fish, shark and ray vertebrae at a time (one trip's worth of Eocene vertebrae) in a single cleaner, about 10% would get damaged.  Cleaning a large number of the vertebrae together at one time in a single ultrasonic cleaner versus one or two vertebrae helped keep the damage down.  The bony fish vertebrae looked fragile, and I expected some of them to get damaged.  I was finding thousands of them, so I was OK with loosing some to get them clean of dirt and clay.  However, what was surprising, some large solid looking shark and ray vertebrae broke in half or in more pieces.  I wasn't finding as many of them, so I stopped ultrasonic cleaning the shark and ray vertebrae.  Fish vertebrae did not preserve well/survive well in the Aquia Formation.

 

I agree with @bthemoose that the one specimen is a bony fish, Scomberomorus sp., tooth missing the enamel and the other is a bony fish vertebra.  The Scomberomorus sp. teeth are fairly common in the Aquia Formation, but because of their small size, you really need to search matrix to find them.

 

Marco Sr.

That’s only the second fish vert that I’ve found in the Purse matrix, so I guess I’ll just be giving any in the future a very gentle brushing instead of the ultrasonic. It also looks like all vertebrae will be getting the brush. Thank you very much for your input. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

I also have a couple of these teeth, round like the Paralbula marylandicus but a bit smaller and with a deeper and broader hole in the centre. A different species? Different place in the mouth? Dental caries?

The reverse looks different too.

Edited May 7 by Tidgy's Dad

[bthemoose]

I think it’s still Paralbula marylandica. If you’re referring to the indentation on the enamel side, I’ve always interpreted those as wear facets.

[Elmo]

22 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

I also have a couple of these teeth, round like the Paralbula marylandicus but a bit smaller and with a deeper and broader hole in the centre. A different species? Different place in the mouth? Dental caries?

The reverse looks different too.

I do love the rounded teeth. They seem to be the only thing that regularly holds it’s enamel from the Aquia. 
Here’s a special little guy named David that I believe is a skate tooth. Most of these have taken a pretty good beating, but this one held up pretty good!